TikTok’s CEO said on Wednesday that the business expects to win a court fight to legislation signed into law by President Joe Biden that would ban the popular short video app, which is used by 170 million Americans.
“Rest assured – we aren’t going anywhere,” CEO Shou Zi Chew said in a video posted moments after Biden signed the bill that gives China-based ByteDance 270 days to divest Tiktok’s U.S. assets or face a ban. “The facts and the Constitution are on our side and we expect to prevail again.”
Tencent spinoff
In 2020, the courts halted then-President Donald Trump’s attempt to ban TikTok and Chinese-owned WeChat, a Tencent spinoff, in the United States.
Chew clarified: “This is a TikTok ban.” He emphasised that TikTok will continue to operate as the company challenged the restrictions.
The bill was enacted late Tuesday by the United States Senate, fueled by broad concerns among senators that China could use the app to access Americans’ data or spy on them.
4-year battle for TikTok
The four-year battle for TikTok is a crucial battleground in Washington and Beijing’s conflict for the internet and technology.
Last week, Apple announced that China has asked it to remove Meta Platforms’ WhatsApp and Threads from the Chinese App Store because to national security concerns.
TikTok plans to contest the bill on First Amendment grounds, and TikTok users are also anticipated to take legal action. In November, a Montana judge ruled against a state ban on TikTok, citing free expression concerns.
Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union stated that prohibiting or mandating TikTok’s divestiture would “set an alarming global precedent for excessive government control over social media platforms.”
However, experts believe that the new legislation will offer the Biden administration a stronger legal foundation to ban TikTok if ByteDance fails to divest the app.
If ByteDance did not divest TikTok, app shops operated by Apple, Alphabet’s Google, and others would be unable to lawfully offer TikTok or provide Web hosting services to ByteDance-controlled applications or TikTok.com.
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